Eventually, Carly was called off to help with something about the train. Lee came over a bit later, and kneeled down in front of me.
"Hey Clem." He started. "How're you feeling." I shrugged. He reached over and rubbed the top of my head, messing up my short curls. I frowned at him. He gave a small chuckle at the look on my face.
"We won't be hanging around here long." He mentioned, "We just need to get the train out of the way, and we can keep on moving down the road to Savannah." Maybe he hoped this would cheer me up, but I just shrugged again.
"I'll see you later, Clem." Lee said, giving Katja a glance, then getting up and walking back to the train.
"Is Clem okay, mom?" Duck asked, in that insensitive way kids do.
"She's fine, duck. It's just... She's not happy that Mark couldn't come with us, and needs some quiet time, okay?"
"Okay. Can I go play on the train now?!" He asks, still full of energy. Katja chuckles.
"Okay, Ducky, let's go ask dad. He'll tell us if it's safe."
They walked off, leaving me alone on the log.
I let out a big sigh. This wasn't working.
When Chuck the homeless man sat down next to me, I looked up at him. He looked back down at me and raised an eyebrow.
"You look like you've been through the wars, kid." He commented, taking a sip from his bottle. I shrugged. "Knew a girl 'bout your age. Saw her get torn apart by them monsters." He continued, in an off-handed tone of voice. I just looked back down, at my hands.
"Ah, the silent type, huh? That's okay. You don't hav'ta say nothin." He took a deep breath. "Kid, I won't lie ta you. Your daddy over there asked me to talk to you." I snorted, lightly. Yeah, that sounds like Lee. He chuckled at that.
"He asked me not to tell you." Chuck shrugged, nonchalantly. "But I figure you'd 'preciate it more if I was honest with you." I shrugged again and looked up. He nodded.
"Now, I'm no head-doctor. I got no degree or fancy bit o' paper, I can tell you've got somthin you need to get off your chest. From what I understand, you folks just got chased outta your home by some bandits, and lost a couple of your own. Terrible thing to happen, losing someone." He rambled on, keeping an eye on me. I nodded.
"I've seen some bad things happen too. I've got some hard-earned wisdom, livin' alone in the world as I have. But I think you know what i'm gonna tell ya, don't you?" He asked. I nodded, and spoke.
"It's not the dead you need to worry about." I said, quietly. He nodded.
"That's right. Walkers, you call them? They're stupid. They're dangerous, sure, but they're predictable. The living are who you gotta be wary of." He took another sip from his bottle.
"People keep dying." I whispered, almost silent.
"And you think it's your fault they're dead." Chuck prompted. "It's not." My head whipped around to glare at him. He just smiled.
"I know your type, girl. You prob'ly thought you could get through all this without losing anybody, right?" I looked down again. "That's what I thought. Now, You're prob'ly gonna get mad at me for say'n this, but it's not your fault they died."
"You don't know anything." I replied, a bit of heat in my tone. He nodded.
"Right. I don't know. I don't know the context, I don't know the hows, the wheres or the whys." He admitted. "But let me tell you somethin. They made their own decisions, or other people made their decisions for them. Unless you put a gun to their heads yourself, and pulled the trigger, it 'aint your fault."
I sighed.
Of course I knew it wasn't my fault.
I'm an adult. Or at least I was, before.
I tried my best to get someone to stay with Doug, so he wouldn't be alone with the St Johns. I didn't expect them to be so desperate or stupid that they'd attack Carly, even knowing we were armed and still had people at the motel.
Ben... The only thing I can think of, is that the bandits never contacted him. Or if they did, he turned them down, and they waited for when he was on watch so they could get him while he was exposed, in some kind of revenge.
Mark... I took a deep breath. Mark wasn't my fault. I may have encouraged him to run across, but he chose that moment, and his shooter chose that moment to fire. We're lucky only one person died. In Canon; Katja, Duck, Carly and Lilly were all victims of leaving the motel, one way or another.
"I know it's not my fault." I said, quietly. "That doesn't mean I don't feel bad about it."
He nodded, but smiled.
"You're a smart kid. Good head on your shoulders, tidy hair, and from that bulge in your jacket, you're packing."
"I think you'll be just fine, kid." His cheer was infectious.
I smiled back. Damn Charles. I can't be mad at you.
I turned to face him and held out my little hand. "I'm Clementine, fourth leader of the group." I said firmly.
He took my hand and shook it with his own, much larger, gloved hand. "Nice to meet you, Clementine. I'm Charles, but you can call me Chuck. Fourth leader, huh?" He asked, raising an eyebrow again.
"Well, they might not know about that part," I admitted, "But they listen to what I have to say often enough I may as well be." He chuffed with humor.
"So, y'all a democracy, then?" I made a so-so gesture.
"A republic, more than anything else."
With that, the train's huge engine turned over and began chugging.
"Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle." Chuck exclaimed. "I never thought I'd see this old thing move again!" I shrugged.
"Lee was trying to fix it, so of course he'd get it to work." He's the protagonist, after all. Chuck smiled at me.
"You got a lotta faith in your daddy, there, don't ya." I shook my head.
"He's not my dad." I said, rolling my eyes. "People always say that. We don't even look like each other. He's just trying to make sure I survive. My parents are in Savannah, but they're probably dead." I finished, sadly. No probably about it.
"I'm sorry, Clem." Chuck commiserated. "Don't rightly know where my family's at, haven't seen 'em in fourteen years anyhow..." We watched as the train shifted forward just enough to unblock the road, then stopped. As it powered down, everyone started gathering in front of the RV again.
"C'mon." I said to Chuck, getting up. "We should get going." he raised an eyebrow at me.
"You're just inviting me along?" I smiled. "I feel like you're a good person. My gut hasn't been wrong yet, never mind that you took time out of your day to cheer me up."
"We'd be happy to have you." I said, sticking out my hand again.
He took it. "I've been alone long enough, I reckon."
---SaS---
Everyone else had assembled when Kenny and Lee finally arrived.
"Alright folks, train's out of the way. Let's get back on the road." Kenny said, sounding a bit disgruntled. "I still reckon the train's the better way to go."
"it's too loud, we'd draw a huge amount of walkers. We also don't know what the tracks are like, they might be broken, or blocked further ahead, then what would we do." I commented, getting stunned looks that slowly turned to relieved smiles. Lee chuckled and gave me a side-hug.
"Took the words right outta my mouth, sweetie." He said, looking a lot happier. Kenny rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah. I know I'm outvoted. Well, c'mon! If that noise didn't draw every walker in the area, I'll eat my hat."
With that, the group boarded the RV and we rode off along the highway.
I smiled.
Well, Canon was well off the rails now. No train, means no Christa or Omid. Then again, I'm not sure we'd even meet them. It's incredibly unlikely that the timing would end up exactly the same, to let us run into each other. It also means that Savannah won't be overrun with walkers, making our job there much easier.
Just need to find the house with the boat, and make sure Molly doesn't get us killed.
Ha. Leaving the derailed train behind caused a derail. Irony.
Charles fit well into the group, he was kind and respectful, without being judgmental. The only one who didn't really like him was Larry, but Larry didn't like anyone anyway. It was a little crowded, but we made do.
The mood in the RV was a lot more positive than just an hour ago.
---SaS---
We pulled into Savannah in the late afternoon, about an hour and a half before sundown. The highway just outside of town was badly obstructed by cars, so it took another hour to push enough cars out of the way to get the RV through.
So far, the outer neighborhoods had been sparse, walker-wise. The odd corpse wandered about, a few drawn to the RV as we drove by. However, as it got later, and the walker population got denser, we knew we'd have to find somewhere to bunker down for the night.
Kenny was still driving, "It's my RV, I'm driving." He called out when he saw a house that looked defensible, and after a few that were shut down by Lee and Lilly, we found ourselves a temporary base. It was a two-story with a long driveway and high fences. The driveway was clear of cars, and the doors and windows looked intact.
Unlike the canon house, this one didn't have a doggy door, which meant we had to break in the hard way. We were careful not to make too much noise, though, and under the light of the setting sun, we piled into the house.
I quickly advised a night watch be set up, to the agreement of Lee and Lilly. All the adults would take turns in two positions; a back window and a front window. Lee and Lilly agreed to take first watch, Kenny and Carly Second, with Larry and Chuck in the last shift before dawn.
Everyone said goodnight, then split up between the three bedroom house. (Chuck wanted to sleep on the sofa, said he couldn't sleep on a bed. "It'd be too soft." he said.)
I went to sit with Lee for a bit, after everyone was asleep.
"What're you doing up, Sweetie?" Lee asked, looking away from the window.
"Just wanted to talk, a bit." I said, sitting up on the window frame.
"Alright, what about?" Lee said, looking past me, out into the dark of the backyard.
"Why'd you ask Chuck to talk to me?" I asked, curiously. He chuckled.
"You figure that out, or he tell you?"
"He told me."
"Yeah, figured he would." Lee went silent for a bit.
"Sometimes, I feel like you're a lot older than you are." Lee admitted. "It's like I'm talking to one of my old students at the university." I nodded, and he continued. "It's easy to talk to you, and I know you'll understand what I said, but I know that's not normal. You're eight years old-"
"Nine" I interrupted. "My birthday was on the fifth." What? I liked Clem when I played the game, so I looked her up on the wiki. There's some things that are really hard to figure out without using every single option in there.
"Nine years old," Lee corrected with a smile, "You were in elementary school, I shouldn't feel like I'm talking to someone just a decade younger than me. But I do."
"Mom always said I had an old soul." I lied as easily as I breathed. Lee nodded.
"Exactly! You're a lot more mature than Duck, even though he's a couple of years older than you." He shook his head. "You see what I mean? I wouldn't be talking to another nine year old like this." I nodded.
"Yeah, I get it."
"But anyway," He continued, "My point is... After we lost Mark, seeing you act like a nine year old was a little jarring. I didn't know how to talk to you about it. So, after Chuck introduced himself and we talked for a bit, I asked him to talk to you. I don't know what you talked about, though." he looks a little sheepish.
I hugged him.
"Thanks for looking out for me, Lee." I said, with a big smile. Lee, awkward around kids as he is, was doing his best.
He hugged me back. "No problem, Clem."
---SaS---
The next morning, we had a quick breakfast and tried to donate Chuck one of our guns. He shook his head, and pulled a revolver from his jacket.
"I've got my own, though thank ye for the offer." He'd said. "I will say though, we'd be better off with something for close-range. It's a lot quieter. You get me?" Everyone pulled out a screwdriver, or revealed their military-issue CQC knives.
Chuck blinked in surprise, then nodded. "Yup, That'd do it. I'd prefer something with a bit more range, though. If you end up cornered, one little knife ain't gonna save ya."
The backyard held a shed, which when looted revealed a shovel, which Chuck deemed fit for him. Lee collected his old fire-axe from the RV and Kenny went without, commenting he wouldn't need one.
With no more delays Lee, Kenny and Chuck all set out for the docks.
It was as we waved them off that I realized something. We were in a completely different area to canon; a different part of town. The people who lived in these houses likely couldn't afford to own a boat.
Finding the boat was going to be harder than I thought.
---SaS---
AN: CHUCK! I love this guy. So full of homeless person wisdom and knowledge. Much wow. He kinda stole the show, there. You know how sometimes a character just writes themselves? He did that. I didn't intend for him to have so much dialog but, eh, that's just how it works.
